The cover photo on 13-year-old Afruz's Facebook profile is a drawing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March.

The family were returning from Kazakhstan where Mr Tambi, who worked for Shell, had been based, the paper added.

Video:Personal Tragedies Of Flight MH17

Some of the greatest minds in the fight against HIV and Aids were also on the jet, which was shot down over Ukraine on Thursday.

They were on their way to the International Aids Society (IAS) summit in Melbourne, Australia.

One of those who is understood to have been on board was Dr Joep Lange, a well-known researcher from the Netherlands.

"If this is the case then the HIV/Aids movement has truly lost a giant," the IAS said.

Among the 283 passengers and 15 Malaysia Airlines cabin crew on board were 192 Dutch nationals, 44 Malaysians, 27 Australians, 12 Indonesians, ten Britons, four Germans, four Belgians, three Filipinos, one Canadian, one New Zealander, one American, one person from Hong Kong and an Irish national.

Video:Diplomatic Tension After MH17 Crash

In a bizarre twist of fate, flight attendant Sajid Singh 41, swapped flights to fly on MH17 - months after his wife swapped off the doomed MH370, his his father Jijar Singh told The Malaysian Insider.